Midnight on the Saratoga
by daenabenjen42
Summary: ...a what-if, based on Mutiny.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Midnight on the Saratoga

Characters: The Wild Cards, ect...

Notes: I wasn't going to post this one here on FFN... and then I changed my mind and decided to do it anyway, even if the fic went nowhere. (Be careful when watching DVD's... plotbunnies can come from the most interesting places...)

Disclaimer: I am not Glen Morgan, nor his compatriot, nor Fox Studios, nor Hard Eight Productions. Am happily borrowing.

* * *

It had been a week, and all she'd done was listen to him talk, stare at the ceiling of the medical bay, and be otherwise unresponsive. The doctors had told him not to expect much at first, that the first couple of weeks were usually the hardest. That talking to her helped speed orientation along, even if she didn't understand him completely yet.

So far... nothing. Not a peep. No vocalizations other than when her gestation tank had broken open and she'd lain there screaming amid the glass shards and the fluid.

They'd said even that was normal. As if there was some kind of comparison to being born and crying. Maybe there was... He would have given anything for something abnormal from her. A hand on his shoulder made him jump and Cooper turned to find Vansen standing there. "What?"

"Go. Take a break," Shane urged him.

"But..." He tried to protest, but the hard expression in Shane's eyes told him to just do what she said. "Right. Been telling her stories."

Shane nodded and sat down in the chair he'd vacated. "Go on. I'll keep her company. Go eat. Catch a nap."

Cooper looked again at the woman laying on the bed, still unmoving other than an occasional blinking of the eyes. It was still hard to believe that was his sister laying there, silent and motionless. "Call me if something changes."

Shane nodded again and watched him go, then leaned closer to the medical bed and inspected the woman-child for herself. Amid the chaos on the MacArthur, there had been so much to absorb, and Hawkes had been spending all his time in here with her, clearly worried. "Kate, let me tell you how I met your big brother. It was a sunny day, our first day of basic, and he showed up late. In handcuffs..."

Suddenly, Kate's hand reached for hers, and Kate blinked up at her. "Basic?"

Shane froze, not certain what to make of the really sudden inquisitiveness, or the innocence she saw reflected in those eyes. Had she ever been that innocent? It felt like a lifetime ago. "Um... Basic training."

"Oh. What was basic training like?"

Shane bit her lip. She knew she should have gone to get Cooper, but if she left Kate alone... "You want me to tell you a story?"

Kate nodded. "Yes. Without the alphabet song."

"All right..." And as Shane began to tell the woman-child about what basic training was, she had to wonder why Coop would sing the alphabet song to her repeatedly. It... didn't exactly sound like his style.

* * *

He'd slept for hours in his bunk. When he awoke, it was way past revely... and Wang was watching him from the table in the middle of their quarters. "What?"

"Nothing. Shane said to let you sleep. McQueen agreed, and told me to stay."

Cooper slowly sat up, frowning. "What time is it?"

"About 1500 hours, give or take a few minutes." Wang watched him stand and start to move toward the door. "Coop?"

"What?"

"Join me for lunch?"

"It's past lunch."

"Haven't eaten yet," Paul told him as he stood up. "And it wasn't a request."

"But I..." The protest, such as it was, died on his lips at Paul Wang's glare. "Right."

Paul followed him out the door, giving an internal sigh of relief. "She'll be fine. Phoose is with her now."

* * *

Vanessa Damphoose wasn't used to being so inactive. They were in the middle of a war, war meant action. Sitting around in a medical area wasn't exactly her idea of action, but no one was shooting at her, so maybe it wasn't so bad. She'd taken over the bedside vigil from Shane earlier in the morning, and so far, all Kate had done was sleep. She jumped slightly when Kate rolled onto her side and blinked to find someone different.

"Where did she go?"

Not having expected that, Vanessa could only stare at her. Then she found her voice. "Shane had some things to do. She'll be back."

"Oh. Will you tell stories? She told stories."

Still uncertain what to make of the girl, Vanessa smiled. "All right..."

* * *

A Week Ago...

* * *

The hold area of the MacArthur was silent as he made his way to the compartment where the manifest said his sister was. He almost didn't want to open the door, but had to see this through... to admit to himself what he'd done in saving everyone else on board.

Just as he was about to open the door, he heard an indefinable wail from inside. Intermittent, almost like an alarm siren, only more unsettling. He froze, hesitating for a long moment. What could make a sound like that? Were there alarms inside set to activate when the tanks went offline?

"You going to open it or not?" Colonel McQueen asked from behind him suddenly. Cooper didn't even glance back at him.

"Something isn't right," he said. "Power was cut off, but there's a noise like an alarm sounding in there." A really high pitched, very unsettling alarm.

Together, they opened the door, cautious and on guard for what might sound like an alarm through a steel door could have been anything. Upon opening the door, the sound became more distinct. It wasn't an alarm, but rather a voice, screaming in sheer, unadulterated, mindless terror.

Cooper took a moment to look over his shoulder at McQueen in question, and then they both entered the room to find out who was screaming where there should have been only silence. Silence of the dead. Of the unborn.

It took a few minutes, searching through rows of upright holding tanks, but the source of the screaming soon became apparent: a holding tank's locks had failed somehow and it was laying in it's side. The suspension fluid had leaked out, and there, laying amid broken shards and fluid was a newly-born InVitro woman-child, screaming incoherently.

Cooper froze at the sight, reading the numbers on the toppled base of the tank, and knew without a doubt who she was. "Kate."

McQueen sprang into action, pulling the woman-child up out of the mess and lifting pieces of broken tank off of her. "Hawkes!"

Cooper needed no further prompting. Without another word, he sprang into action, helping the Colonel move her out of the hold and into a bunk. Eventually, she stopped screaming.

* * *

Nathan West stared at the woman laying on the bunk, shivering under the covers. An hour ago, she'd been screaming incoherently. Now, a harried hour later, she was less vocal, cleaned up as best they could manage under these circumstances, and bandaged where needed. And Coop had stationed himself at her bedside like some kind of very silent sentry.

A hand on his shoulder made Nathan jump, startled as he turned to find McQueen, who beckoned him with his head to follow. Nodding, he followed his CO into the corridor.

"We are going to inspect the rest of the tanks," McQueen told him shortly, glancing at Wang, who had also joined them. "See if any other locks failed on them."

"Locks?" Wang asked, and Nathan was glad he'd voiced it. This whole situation was just confusing.

"The ones that hold the tanks to the deck," McQueen answered succinctly as he led them to the hold.

They found two other tanks which had toppled, but no one else alive, and looking around, Nathan found his malice toward InVitroes fading somewhat. The more he inspected the tanks in the darkened hold and looked into dead, innocent faces, the more he became convinced that the woman-child currently laying in Cooper's bunk had been lucky. Very, very lucky.

* * *

Now...

* * *

When Cooper walked into Sickbay that evening, he found Shane reading a weapons manual aloud to Kate, who was watching her attentively. The change was so startling, he couldn't help but stand there and stare, mouth agape.

"Shane?" Kate asked, unknowingly sending him into an even deeper state of shock.

Shane glanced at her over the manual. "Hmmm?"

She pointed at him. "He's... I don't know. Something."

Shane slowly turned to find Cooper staring at them, appearing more stunning than she'd ever seen anybody. Understanding instantly, Shane stood up and led him the several steps to Kate's bedside, guided him to a chair. "The word is shocked, Kate."

"Oh."

Cooper stared at Kate some more. Shocked wasn't the word for it. "Shane?"

"A watched and annoyed pot never boils, Coop," Shane told him carefully after pulling up another chair. "She started reacting after I sent you to bed."

Kate was confused when he turned and stared hard at Shane. "And no one told me?!"

Shane was sorely tempted to roll her eyes in frustration, but knew that would just infuriate him even more. "McQueen ordered us to keep you occupied and let you sleep when you didn't wake up for revile this morning."

Kate suddenly giggled, distracting him from his furor. "I'd like to meet him."

Shane smiled at her gently. "You did. A week ago."

"Huh?"

"Not that you'd remember that, really. But you did."

Kate frowned and shifted her attention back to Cooper. "Why did you show up for Basic training in handcuffs? And what are handcuffs?"

Cooper blinked at her, sat back, and stared hard at Shane. "Handcuffs are a sort of restraint for the hands that go around the wrists. Shane?"

Shane smirked at him slightly. "You said to tell stories. I'd like to know why, too."

Cooper took a deep breath. It did very little to settle his nerves. "Because I was sentenced for a crime actually committed against me and I was angry." At a frown from both women, he sighed again. In for a penny, in for a mortar. "See, I for a job at a construction site, and after hours some natural-borns tried to have me hanged for the crime of being an InVitro."

"I don't understand," Kate said as Shane winced. "Why is it a crime to be what we are?"

Cooper leaned closer to her. "It's not, Kate. Long as you live, remember that. I was in handcuffs because I fought back and then the authorities showed up... and I don't know how, exactly, but they thought I was the attacker instead of the attacked. The next day, I was sentenced to the Corps, and that's why I showed up late for Basic in handcuffs."

Shane stared at him, some things about his behavior falling into place. It had taken a death of one of their squad on Mars for him to begin to care... and this explained so much.


	2. Eyes

A/N: So the next ep in the line-up was Eyes...

* * *

On the tenth day after she began to talk and interact and move around on her own, the medical people released her to general quarters and she meets someone new. He has white hair and a stern expression on his face, and doesn't say a word as Cooper leads her to a bunk and says this one is hers.

She likes the stern guy immediately, but is hesitant to lay down on yet another bunk. It reminds her too much of the medical people. "Do I have to use it?"

Cooper's eyes betrayed how deeply the question cut, but he only smiled. "Only if you want to, Kate."

She nods, accepting that answer. "Okay."

Cooper turned to the white haired man. "What do you think, sir?"

"We can't keep her on board forever, Cooper. She's an non-combatant." He looks directly at her, smiles slightly only with his eyes, and extends a hand. "Welcome aboard, Katherine."

Kate stares at his hand for a moment, uncertain as to what the gesture means. "Um..."

"It's a greeting," Cooper prompts her. "Shake his hand."

Slowly, she shakes the older man's hand. "Thank you. This is how we do this, right?"

His solemn composure breaks and his face is transformed by a smile. "Yes. That's exactly right."

"You still haven't told me your name. The others did that before doing anything else."

"Ty," he told her.

"Is that short for something?"

"Yes."

"Going to tell me what it is?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Unnoticed, Cooper had to hide a smirk as he listened to the two of them bond. In that moment, he knew one thing with absolute certainty: Kate wasn't going anywhere. He wasn't about to voice this to McQueen, however.

* * *

Standing at a view port, Kate stared out at a blue, green, and brown planet which she'd never seen before. It looked... kinda like that one other planet they'd orbited, but for some reason this one was special to her brother's team mates. They'd been looking forward to it for weeks.

"It's amazing, you know," said Vanessa from beside her. "You can forget everything we're fighting for in the thick, and with just one look..."

Kate blinked and turned to look at her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Home," Vanessa explained simply, motioning to the blue planet hanging in the view port. "Why we're out here, doing what we've been doing."

Kate mulled that over as she listened to everyone talk about vacation plans, wanting to laugh at Shane's antics as she wondered what a cold Mexican Beer was. And then the monitor on the wall captured her attention. A loud boom and panicked voices made her turn to see chaos before the signal cut out.

* * *

Kate stared at the underside of the top bunk as she listened to the announcement that all leaves were cancelled and the ship was now on alert. She blinked when Cooper bent and touched her arm. "We were going to see snow."

"I know," he said softly. "Some other time, Kate."

"Promise?"

Cooper's response was cut off when Shane began to rant about how nothing ever changed and the last time a world leader was killed, the killer wasn't even human, but rather an A.I. unit. Kate wanted cliff notes understand what she meant by that, but made no move to get her portable education computer from under her bunk and look it up.

Cooper took a deep breath. "Promise... and I'd like to get my hands on the guy who killed Santiago."

"You'd be going after one of your own," a new voice told him, and Kate frowned at the new arrivals over Cooper's shoulder as she sat up. He'd barely been in the room a minute, and she already didn't like the talking guy. Really, really didn't like him.

The conversation that followed was hard to follow. Something about replacements for those lost on Boonwell? "What was Boonwell?"

Everyone turned and looked at her, the new arrivals appearing very confused. Cooper frowned as he sat beside her on the bunk. "Boonwell is a mining colony, Kate."

"Bad?"

"Yes. It was."

"Okay."

Cooper looked at the new arrivals now, stared at them for a long moment, then looked at Shane, who was staring at Kate with wide eyes. "Do we tell them?"

"Would probably be easier if we did, yes." Shane turned her attention to the arrivals. "She's new to the world. Very new, so be careful what you say around her please. Kate?"

"Yes?"

"No beating anyone up. You're stronger than them."

"Except in sparing?"

Shane smiled tightly. "Only then."

Kate smiled back. "Okay."

The rude talking guy peered at Kate a moment. "Stronger? New to the world?"

"Don't ask," Shane quickly told him before Kate even had the chance to go back on her word about not hitting anyone.

* * *

They'd ordered her to stay in quarters while the dignitaries arrived, saying it was safer that way. She thought they just wanted to keep her away from the newbies.

McQueen entered in his dress blues and cleared his throat. "Come on."

"They told me to stay, Ty."

"Commodore Ross needs to talk to us."

"But..." He glared at her mildly and the protests died on her lips. "Right. Lead the way."

* * *

Commodore Ross was a nice, but stern, man and Kate had taken an instant liking to his easy, commanding manner. He was... somewhat off as she sat down with McQueen. "Kate."

She nodded in response. "Sir."

Momentarily, they were joined by Cooper, and Kate was even more confused. "I thought you were greeting dignitaries?"

"Because-" Cooper started to say, and then stopped himself and looked at Commodore Ross. "She doesn't know, sir."

Kate was getting tired of people talking in circles. "Now I'm confused, Cooper. Explain?"

Commodore Ross nodded slowly, clearly choosing his words carefully. "How much do you know about what you are, Kate?"

"I'm a person," Kate told him simply, though she knew he was looking for a different response.

He blinked at the simplicity of it and glanced at McQueen, questions clearly in his eyes. "Right. This is hard to explain."

McQueen sighed and turned to Kate. "The three of us are going to be tested. You know what a test is, right, Kate?"

Kate nodded. "Yes. Why?"

"That's what I want to know," Cooper muttered.

"Loyalty," the Commodore told him.

"Invitroes specifically?"

As Ross nodded, Kate became even more confused. After the chaos had broken out on the monitor, Cooper had ushered her back to the 58th's shared quarters. And then the new people had shown up, and there'd been something about how someone had been killed. "Is this about that newscast that resulted in cancelled leave?"

Ross nodded. "Yes."

"Then okay. I'll cooperate even if I don't know why I'm cooperating for loyalty."

Cooper sighed as Ross looked at him. "She really doesn't know because I haven't yet figured out how to explain it all."

"I can beat you up and make you explain, brother," Kate told him teasingly, eyes flashing dangerously.

Commodore Ross looked at Cooper with raised eyebrows. "Beat you up?"

"Sparing. Defense training. She's really good at it," Cooper explained. "And why include Kate in this? She's never even set foot on planet. Are the dignitaries even aware that she's here?"

The Commodore nodded. "Our crew complement increased by one Invitro. That couldn't go unreported."

"That word again," Kate spoke up. "In-what-is?"

"That's something that makes us... us," Cooper told her. "How we were born."

"Oh." She frowned. "And politicians don't trust us?"

"Not exactly. They just want to make sure they can."

Kate took that in and nodded. "Makes more sense now. Not that it actually makes sense, but you know..."

There was a long silence as the three men looked at each other, looked at her, looked at each other again, and chuckled as one.

Kate blinked. "What?"

* * *

The testing, as it turned out, resembled a very odd eye exam. Kate had learned to cooperate with those, but the questions were a new experience all unto themselves. And she really, really didn't like the people doing the questioning. They felt... oily.

"Name?"

"Katherine 'Wilde' Hawkes." She couldn't see the person, but that didn't matter. "Everyone but the Commodore and Ty... Colonel McQueen, calls me Kate."

"Can I call you Kate, then?"

"No. I don't know you." _Or like you_, she thought to herself.

"Very well. How old are you?"

"Three months old next week." She frowned. "I think."

"That's correct," the Commodore spoke up from where he was sitting, observing the proceedings.

Her interrogator paused in acknowledgement. "And where were you born?"

"An area of space known as 'Bloody Alley' aboard the MacArthur. They told me that my tank had some kind of failure and that's why I lived when the others died." She paused, shuddered, and took a deep breath. "Do we have to talk about that?"

Another pause. "No, Katherine. We don't have to talk about that. Why is your middle name 'Wilde'?"

"It's not. That's my call sign."

"For what?"

Commodore Ross cleared his throat, interrupting them. "Not pertinant and you've questioned her enough. She wasn't aware of why this needs to be done until today, let alone the reasons for it."

The lights went up and Kate had to blink rapidly as the eye camera thing was removed. Her questioner turned to look at the Commodore, frowned, and nodded, and then looked straight at her. "Thank you, Katherine. You're free to go."

"Can I stay for my brother and Ty?"

The Commodore answered before the question guy could. "No, Katherine."

"Why not?"

He sighed. "Because it has to be done one at a time."

"But you get to stay."

The Commodore forced himself not to smile. "That's because I'm in charge."

"Oh. If I'm in charge temporarily, can I stay?"

"No."

* * *

Hours later, something was nagging at her as she listened to the 58th talk about their small, non-combat mission to pick up a delegate dignitary person. Cooper had been tense ever since they'd released him from questioning, but it didn't make any sense. Hadn't it been the same for him as it had been for her?

Getting up off her bunk, she made a decision. She needed to talk to Ty and the Commodore, and Cooper needed to be there when she did. "Coop?"

He jumped slightly. "What?"

"Walk me to medical?"

He frowned. "You hate going to medical."

"Come with me? Please?"

Cooper turned in his chair and looked at Shane. "We'll be back."

Shane waved him off. "Oh, just go, you two."

Kate smiled as she led her brother from the room, distantly hearing Nathan wonder aloud what that had been about.

* * *

"Kate, this really isn't necessary," Cooper told her as she walked back into sickbay with Commodore Ross behind her. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not, and we're not leaving Medical until I get some answers." She turned to the Commodore. "He's been acting strange for him ever since they released him."

Ross nodded, knowing full well what she meant. He'd seen Cooper flinch at one point during questioning... and, now that Kate mentioned it, the young man did appear to be somewhat more tense than he'd ever seen him. "You're right. Better safe than sorry, Lieutenant. And you know what they say about children and animals..."

"That they're annoying," Cooper offered, which earned him a hard smack on the shoulder from Kate.

"No. That both are honest and observant."

Kate rolled her eyes at Cooper. "And if I'm annoying, so are you." She looked at the Commodore, frowning in thought. "Did the weird eye exam have a vid playback in the lens?"

"Yes," Cooper told her immediately, unable to stop himself. "What about it?"

She bit her lip, then motioned a medic over. "I was reading a lot, everything I could, for weeks after I realized that there was a connection between the symbols on the page and that really annoying alphabet song. Something about conditioning and images? Do we have to know what the image is to be utterly certain there was something more going on than an eye exam with lots of questions?"

The doctor frowned, not having expected such a heavy topic this late in the day from the youngest person on board. It was like hearing a valedictorian speech from a four year old. "The... pardon, 'weird eye exam' was what, exactly?"

"Loyalty interrogation," Commodore Ross supplied.

"Because of what happened planet side?"

"Yes."

The doctor nodded. "That's enough to go on. Be right back."

Kate smiled at Cooper, who was glaring at her. "I was right and medical guy is going to do something to prove it."

"I still say I'm fine," Cooper told her.

"Let us be the judge of that," Commodore Ross said in a commanding tone as the doctor returned promptly with a small vid player and several disks. "What is this?"

"Testing Kate's theory. If they did something during interrogation, however minute, we'll find it." He pulled Cooper over to a table and sat him down. "You're going to get really impatient, Lieutenant, but it'll be worth it if Kate's right."

"If she is," Cooper muttered as the doctor popped the first disk into the vid player. "What is that of?"

"Images. Most recent political symbology. Next disk after that is pop culture, and the third one is every plant or animal known to exist."

Cooper sighed as they began to flash one at a time. Slowly. It was educational, but also incredibly boring... Some time around image #62 or so, he flinched and grabbed at a side arm he wasn't actually carrying. "Ah!"

Faintly, he heard Kate gasp and suddenly he was being held firmly in her arms. "Cooper!"

Cooper took several deep breaths, stunned. Then he realized Kate had him immobilized. "Kate. Let go."

"No. Doc, which image was that?"

"Number... sixty-three."

Cooper squirmed in Kate's stronghold. "Can I look?"

"No," the Commodore told him. "Keep your eyes closed."

"What just happened?" Cooper wondered, confused. "I'm not carrying a sidearm around the ship!"

"Kate was right," the doctor told him. "Kate, you can let go now."

"You're sure?"

"Yes. Hawkes, keep your eyes closed, all right?"

Cooper nodded as Kate released him. "Right..." He jumped when sensation registered on his neck, squirmed as something probed at his navel. "Do you have to do that?"

Silence reigned for long moments before the doctor muttered something unintelligable. Clearing his throat, the man spoke, "There's fresh blood right where your implant is. Not a lot, just enough to bruise faintly. I'm going to do something, so hold still. I repeat: don't move."

Cooper had no warning, other than that, for the doctor suddenly sticking something through the skin on the back of his neck and into the latent implant underneath. "Gah!"

"Told you not to move."

"What's that do?" Kate wondered, puzzlement in her voice. Cooper was glad she asked, because he was too stunned to voice anything.

"Checks synaptic functions."

"And the implants?"

"Are why you understood basic things like the alphabet at a week old."

"Oh." Cooper heard her move closer. "So how is he?"

The doctor didn't answer her at first, and then he sighed. "Commodore? A word?" To Cooper, he said, "Keep your eyes closed. I mean it."

* * *

Comodore Ross liked to think he was a patient man, but this whole mess was infuriating. He glanced back at the two invitroes, then looked firmly at the doctor. "Well?"

"Obviously, he was tampered with. I found evidence of a brainwashing attempt in his implant, and that reaction to a simple picture of a pin has me worried. I'd like to keep him for observation to see if I can reverse it."

Ross nodded. "Good."

The doctor glanced at the waiting pair, frowned again. "Think Kate will stay right there by his side, even if I did try to kick her out?"

"Yes. I suggest you don't try to."

"Thank you, Comodore."

* * *

Kate didn't like being kept in the dark, and when the Comodore returned with the doctor, she expected answers. "Well? What's going on?"

"I'm keeping him for observation," the doctor told her. "I saw something I didn't like."

"Great," Cooper muttered. "Can you get this thing out my neck now?"

"Not just yet."

"Then can I at least open my eyes?"

"No."

"Then what can I do?"

"Sit and let me figure this out."

For what wasn't going to be the last time that evening, Cooper sighed.

* * *

Shane frowned when Kate returned without her brother. "Where's Coop?"

"Being held overnight for observation because I was right. There's something wrong, but Doctor Michaels wouldn't tell me what, exactly." She shuddered. "Something about reacting to a picture of a pin with a political symbol on it... or something."

Shane sat down next to Kate on her bunk. "That doesn't make any sense, Kate."

"Neither did the weird eye exams."

Shane blinked, confused, and turned to find her squadmates staring at Kate in varying degrees of confusion. "Eye exams?"

"With lots of questions." Kate glanced around at everyone. "I've never even set foot on planet and they did it to me, too." She squinted at the new arrivals staring at her. "They didn't happen to give you pre-leaving-planet eye exams as well, did they? It's mean!"

The rude guy from earlier shifted uncomfortably. "No. Just a normal one." She stared at him and he frowned at her. "What?"

"Nothing." Kate turned to Shane. "I'm going back to medical, okay?"

Shane nodded and turned to glare at the rude person in question. "She's an innocent. Remember that, please." He nodded and they lapsed into silence for a while.


End file.
